Fish have gills for a reason

Last weekend my friend Luke and I decided to head to Tigre, a renowned tourist hot spot here in Buenos Aires recommended by a lot of the locals – ‘its beautiful, go there to get away from the city’… so after a quick look at some websites about Tigre we decided to go, and head off with preconceived ideas of luscious greenery, elegant architecture, and clear waters. Stepping out the train station, the place seemed quite pleasant – not exactly what we were expecting- the greenery was limited, but quite pretty… and then we stepped onto the bridge just outside the station, and took a look into the River Tigre… this Tigre was a hungry kitty and by the looks of things had been snacking on fish, a lot of fish.

Tigre - a privileged place...

Now, the photos I have taken in no way do justice to what we saw (taking pictures of fish is hard FYI), looking over the railings you could see a spread of dead fish floating at the river surface, many washed to the sides, thus easier for us to enjoy. Any fish that were alive were at the surface breathing – looking like they were gasping for breath. It was very apparent that there was not enough oxygen available for them to breath under the water – probably due to contamination. Fish have gills for a reason.

The most shocking thing however was not the dead fish per se but the reaction of the local people – the juxtaposition of happy families enjoying the scenery from a river boat whilst beneath them hundreds of fish were dying, or the elite rower wearing his club crest proudly as he hit a limp fish with his blade, was very strange. I felt an injustice for those helpless fish, gasping for their last breath whilst we were exploiting their habitat. Every one has seen a polluted river but you rarely see the direct affects like this.

On top of this, a walk further up the river showed people fishing? Seems a bit like cheating to me – but good luck to them if they’re brave enough to eat anything that comes from that river.

Thinking that perhaps this was an abnormal scene in Tigre and some freak event had caused all these deaths, I asked a local policeman why there were so many dead fish in the river. He replied with a common nonchalant response – the river is really contaminated and no one does anything about it – oh ok then.

Fish + fuel leak = unhappy fish(dead)

Given that not many people feel as sentimental towards fish as I do – the fish are just a mere indication of how polluted the river is which in turn can have detrimental affects on the health of the people that live there.

Tigre is located on the Parana Delta and the Tigre river is a tributary of the Rio Reconquista. A quick google search proves very interesting, many scientific papers reporting that the river is ’supercritical’ and one of the most contaminated rivers in Argentina. According to many of the studies, there are high levels of ‘POPs’ (persistent organic pollutants) which can cause adverse health affects in people such as allergies, breathing problems and even death.

How did these pollutants end up in the river? The increase in population around the area has led to an increase in industry and therefore the amount of industrial waste discharged into the river. In some places the industrial waste toxicity is 10 times higher than it should be. What are the authorities doing about the problem? Nada. There are inadequate regulations for waste treatment and industries have no- one stopping them discarding waste into the river.

Interestingly, many papers report that in times of economic recession, the river has shown signs of recovery, presumably due to the decrease in industry… bad times for the people, good times for the fishies….

One scientific paper I found wrote this – ‘the idea that rivers are a convenient means of cleaning and carrying pollution away from the discharge point should be urgently reconsidered worldwide in order to protect water quality, ecosystems and human health.’ Well said.

Dead fish at the bottom of the steps

What we are seeing is something that we can see in most cities but even more so here in Buenos Aires, environmental problems taking a back seat.